Ganesh Suntharam will join Vasant Khilnani as the joint head of Perpetual's quantitative investments (QI) business.
Khilnani will focus on the development of niche funds for new clients and continue to have a key management role in Perpetual's QI business, while Suntharam will still manage Perpetual's QI market-neutral, long-short and long-only funds.
The change in team structure has two key objectives.
"The first of these is to ensure we continue to give our clients the best service by delivering good performance in our existing funds and by consistently improving our investment process through ongoing research," Perpetual Investment's chief operating officer Cathy Doyle said.
"Our second objective is to start new growth initiatives that expand our client base and revenue through the development of innovative products and new distribution channels."
Suntharam has been a quantitative portfolio manager since joining the group's investment management arm, Perpetual Investments, in 2005.
After more than 11 years in quantitative disciplines, Suntharam's appointment acknowledges his solid investment management experience and performance and his proven leadership capabilities, Doyle said.
On 15 February 2009, Perpetual also announced changes to its institutional sales team.
Former ABN Amro director of institutional sales Warwick Boys was appointed general manager income and multi-sector institutional sales, while Daniel Campbell was hired internally as general manager of global equities institutional sales for Asia Pacific.
Perpetual is still looking for a replacement for general manager of Australian equities institutional sales Justin Walsh, who leaves the group at the end of March, a company spokesperson said.
